Artificial Lines

I just read an article that talked about interracial marriages, and how the number has risen dramatically in the past 40 years. It shocked me how much things have changed in this short amount of time. It said that in 1967 the supreme court "knocked down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying nonwhites" which resulted in similar bans being knocked down in 15 other states. I was a little surprised because I didn't even know that there was a bill that ban interracial marriages at that time.
The article went on to say that African American-White marriages have increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005. Further more, if you factor in all racial combinations, more than 7% of married couples in the U.S. are interracial (as of 2005) which compares to less than 2% in 1970. These numbers surprised me, and I think it's a positive thing that the numbers have risen so much in just 40 years. One person in the article said, "The racial divide in the U.S. is a fundamental divided...but when you have the 'other' in your own family, it's hard to think of them as 'other' anymore. We see a blurring of the old lines, and that has to be a good thing, because the lines were artificial in the first place." I think this goes to show that the racial lines in the United States are not as rigid as they once were. These numbers show that people are becoming more and more accepting, which is a positive thing, however I do also realize that we have a long way to go in the United States.

Brigit May, Post 21